Zólyom county

Infobox Former Subdivision
native_name = Comitatus Zoliensis
conventional_long_name = Zólyom County
common_name = Zólyom
subdivision = County
nation = the Kingdom of Hungary
p1 =
s1 =
year_start = 12th century
event_end = Treaty of Trianon
year_end = 1920
date_end = June 4




capital = Banská Bystrica
stat_area1 = 2634
stat_pop1 = 133700
stat_year1 = 1910
today = Slovakia

Zólyom county (in Latin: "comitatus Zoliensis", in Hungarian "Zólyom (vár)megye", in Slovak "Zvolenský komitát/ Zvolenská stolica/ Zvolenská župa", in German "Sohler Gespanschaft/Komitat Sohl") is the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in central Slovakia.

Geography

Zólyom county shared borders with the counties of Bars (Tekov), Turóc (Turiec), Liptó (Liptov), Gömör-Kishont (Gemer-Malohont), Nógrád (Novohrad) and Hont. The county's territory was situated along the central Hron river, approximately between (excluding) Krupina and (including) Brezno. Its area was 2634 km² around 1910. The county was characterised by extensive mining activities.

Capitals

The capital of the county was the castle of Pustý hrad near Zvolen, then from the late 15th century the Zvolen Castle and from the 1760s the town of Banská Bystrica.

History

Zvolen county arose as a Hungarian comitatus in the 12th century, when most parts of the territory were conquered by the Kingdom of Hungary, from a huge royal property (the "Zvolen dominium"). Initially, its territory included the later counties Orava, Turiec and Liptov, which became separate counties in the early 14th century.

In the aftermath of World War I, Zólyom county became part of newly formed Czechoslovakia, as recognized by the concerned states in the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. The Zvolen county ("Zvolenská župa") continued to exist till 1927, but it had completely different powers etc. and somewhat different borders. When Slovakia became independent temporarily between 1939 and 1945, the Hron county ("Pohronská župa") was created in 1940, whose territory roughly corresponded to that of the Zvolen county. The capital was Banská Bystrica.

Together with the Slovak parts of Hont and Gemer, it became part of the Banská Bystrica Region ("Banskobystrický kraj") created in 1948. In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split and the Zvolen county became part of Slovakia.

Demographics

Population by language (1910 census):
*Slovak = 113,294
*Hungarian = 16,509
*German = 2,124

ubdivisions

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Zólyom/Zvolen county were: